This is a qualitative study that aimed to understand what the feelings of relatives of patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The study was conducted in the ICU of a large general hospital in the western region of Santa Catarina. The data collection occurred in 2009 with a semi structured interview to eighteen families. For the data treatment used the collective subject discourse. Reports emerged of two items related to feelings: hospitalization in the ICU and while waiting to enter the unit. The analysis revealed feelings as pain, anguish, sadness, helplessness, fear, despair, anxiety and expectation infinite. It is hoped that these results may assist in the training of professionals, to host the family and its insertion in the ICU environment as an element to be integrated into nursing care, through actions welcoming, helping them to cope with hospitalization of a relative in a critical unit.
Intensive care units; Family; Emotions; Family nursing